SOURCE: "Viewing The Body': King's Portrait of the Artist as Survivor," in The Gothic World of Stephen King: landscape of Nightmares, edited by Gary Hoppenstand and ray B. Browne, Bowling Green State University Popular Press, 1987, pp. 64-74.

Heldreth is an American educator and critic. In the following essay, he provides a thematic analysis of The Body, discussing King's treatment of maturation and use of narrative writing to "[shape important experiences into a form to be communicated."]

Steven King begins The Body with "The most important things are the hardest things to say. . . . Words shrink things that seem limitless when they were in your head to no more than living size when they're brought out. . . ." Shaping important experiences into a form to be communicated is one of the major themes of the novella, and into it King incorporates several levels of archetypal experience. He cites the "high ritual to...